Russia halts electricity supply to Finland after 10 days of nonpayment

Electricity supplies from Russia to Finland were halted on Saturday, RAO Nordic said in a statement, explaining that it had received no payment for power provided to the country in May.

“Unfortunately, we are forced to note that for the volumes which have been sold on the Nord Pool exchange since May 6, funds have not yet been credited to our bank account,” said the company, which is a subsidiary of Russian state energy corporate Inter RAO.

The firm expressed hope that the situation would be resolved and trade could resume. RAO Nordic had reportedly been trading on the Nord Pool exchange for more than two decades.

“We hope that the situation will improve soon and the electricity trade with Russia can resume,” the corporation said.

On Friday, Finland’s transmission system operator Fingrid said there was no threat to electricity supply in the country as a result of the move. The grid company added that electricity imported from Russia accounted for around 10% of the nation’s total consumption.

“The lack of electricity imports from Russia will be compensated for by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland,” said Reima Paivinen, Fingrid’s senior vice president of power system operations.

In April, it announced plans to reduce electricity imports from Russia in cross-border connections, saying it would import more from Sweden instead. At the same time, analysts say that cutting electricity purchases from Russia would increase Finnish power prices by 30%.

The country’s media also reported that Russia could stop providing Finland with natural gas on Friday over the nation’s bid to join NATO. Russia has not confirmed the reports.